Media Garden
Newspapers
Variable dimensions
2001
In 2001, Richard Humann participated in a cross-cultural exchange between American and Korean artists. The American artists traveled to Seoul for an exhibition at Ssamzie Space, followed a month later by a reciprocal exhibition in New York, where the Korean artists traveled to participate. For the New York exhibition, Humann co-founded Extra Extra! with Lars Chellberg, Sanggil Kim, Yuseungho, and Yeondoo Jung. The collaborative group created Media Garden, an installation that transformed the gallery’s exterior into a landscape of printed information.
Drawing on New York City’s extraordinary diversity of cultures, religions, and languages, Extra Extra! gathered newspapers from all five boroughs, collecting publications that reflected the many communities living within the city. The group used these newspapers to wallpaper the entire exterior space of the gallery, turning the printed page into an architectural surface. News ordinarily read, discarded, and replaced became a continuous environment surrounding the viewer.
The title Media Garden suggests a space for contemplation and leisure, but one populated by the constant flow of information. Like a garden, the installation offers a place to pause and absorb one’s surroundings. Yet instead of plants, it is filled with headlines, opinions, and accounts of events unfolding across the world. This creates a tension between the quiet experience of being in a space and the relentless activity of the news it contains.
By bringing newspapers in multiple languages together, Extra Extra! reflected the cultural multiplicity of New York while transforming the city’s information landscape into a shared physical experience. Media Garden considers how information surrounds and shapes contemporary life, inviting viewers to step back from the daily news cycle and experience its abundance as both a source of connection and an overwhelming presence.
Richard Humann, Lars Chellberg, Sanggil Kim, Yuseungho, and Yeondoo Jung on Broadway in front of Lance Fung Gallery, SoHo, New York City, 2001
Photo credits: Richard Humann Studio